This is the last in my series of the fifteen keys to success in Karate and it is probably the most simple. Repetition is the concept of learning a technique and then repeating it over and over again. I have mentioned before that most experts agree it takes 5,000 to 10,000 repetitions of a given technique before you are able to do it without thinking. In a violent situation, you will not have time to think through the steps needed for a given technique. Therefore, we must do the repetitions and pay our dues in training in order to put these Karate techniques into our subconscious.

The first step is to make sure you are doing the technique right. If you are doing it wrong, repeating it over and over will wire the technique into your subconscious wrong. Once this has happened, it is much harder to correct the problem. So, how can you make sure you are doing the technique right? First, you must listen in class. This is always important, but particularly critical when you are learning something new. Second, you have to watch it being done. Third, you have to try it under instruction, with someone who knows how it should be done and can correct any errors.

Now that you know how to do it, it is simply a matter of repeating the technique several thousand times. The concept is simple, but the work is difficult. It is easy to become bored with a standing front kick, which you may have done thousands of times, but it is necessary. The only difference in a Gold Belt and a Black Belt is 3 years of class attendance and the repetition of the techniques learned until you can do them without thinking.

You also need to keep something in mind when you are training. Repetition will lead to the ability to do a technique extremely well, but it also has a potential disadvantage that you need to consider. If you do 5,000 round kicks at waist level, it will be very difficult for you to kick higher than that. You have basically wired in a limitation. This is why I tell you to work your stretch kicks gradually up instead of doing them all at maximum effort. I don’t want to wire in a limitation. When you are born, you are extremely flexible. The reason we don’t maintain that flexibility is because the body adapts to the needs placed upon it. Our failure to exercise through the body’s entire range of motion actually wires in limitations that are difficult to overcome. Make sure you are always pushing yourself to new heights.

Finally, you need to realize that once you have a technique wired in, it is not necessarily permanent. I took two years of Spanish in high school and 3 quarters in college. When I finished, I could speak it reasonably well. Today, I can only remember a handful of words and phrases. Why is that? What happened? Basically, it’s because I haven’t practiced it since then. The same is true of your Karate techniques. That’s why we still ask Brown and Red belts to do the basics from time to time. It’s not enough to know the techniques; you have to practice them occasionally to keep them sharpened and fresh in your mind. When used correctly, repetition will change a good technique into a beautifully honed skill that will be available when you need it most.